Swiss create giant postcard to save melting glacier
November 16, 2018
Organizers claim the postcard consisting of 125,000 children's drawings and messages is the world's largest. The postcard is expected to raise awareness about climate change and its impact on shrinking glaciers.
A massive postcard aimed at creating awareness about global warming and climate change was laid out on Switzerland's rapidly shrinking Aletsch Glacier on Friday.
The postcard, measuring 2,500 square meters (26,910 square feet), was created using 125,000 postcards with messages against climate change and sent by young people from all over the world.
The event aims to "boost a global youth climate movement ahead of the next global climate conference (COP24) in Poland," next month, said the WAVE Foundation, which organized the collection in cooperation with Swiss government's Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
'Stop global warming'
Organizers claimed that the postcard, assembled at an altitude of 3,400 meters in the upper reaches of the glacier, was the world's largest.
The collage spelled out messages such as "WE ARE THE FUTURE GIVE US A CHANCE" and "STOP GLOBAL WARMING #1.5 DEGREES C," the latter referring to a UN report released last month. Scientists favored limiting the rise in Earth's temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) from the 2 degrees Celsius agreed at the 2015 Paris climate talks.
"Children and young people have a key role to play if (the 1.5C) goal is to be achieved, both as generations that will suffer from the consequences of climate change for a long time and as a force for concrete action," the SDC said in a statement.
The postcard was created using 125,000 messages against climate change sent by children from around the world.Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Keystone/V. Flauraud
Vanishing glacier
The Aletsch Glacier, which is the largest glacier in the Alps, is receding at an unprecedented pace, losing up to 12 meters (nearly 40 feet) of ice a year.
Glaciology experts at the University of Zurich warn that the Great Aletsch Glacier, visible from space, could disappear by the end of the century.
The glacier, which is 23 kilometers (14.3 miles) long, has receded about 3 kilometers since 1870. The pace has accelerated in the past few years.
A golden cross sits on top of Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, located in the Ammergauer Alps. This part of the Alps, and the mountain itself, are a big draw for visitors eager to ski, hike, climb or just cruise to the top in a cable car to have some food or a beer. But the mountains are feeling the impact of a warming world — at an alarming rate.
It's September and unusually warm. So warm that some people wear shorts and T-shirts as they stop off to eat and explore the glacier plateau before heading for the summit. Thirty years ago, it would have been much colder here. Since 1985, there's been a warming of around 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit). In the Alps, temperatures are rising twice as fast as the global average.
Image: DW/J. Collins
Melting glaciers
Increased temperatures mean receding glaciers. Michael Krautblatter, pictured at the Schneefernerhaus environmental research station with the remnants of one of the Zugspitze's glaciers behind him, says "it's just a matter of time before they disappear." The professor of landslide research at Munich's Technical University (TUM) has been studying the mountain's ice for 10 years.
Image: DW/J. Collins
The science bit
Krautblatter and his team use specialized equipment to measure the Zugspitze's ice and permafrost — a layer of permanently frozen sediment, rock or soil. They place electrodes inside the rocks to measure electrical conductivity. If it's no longer frozen, conductivity is good. The work sometimes involves the researchers scaling the mountain face. The permafrost is disappearing too, they say.
Image: DW/J. Collins
Losing stability
That's bad news, largely because permafrost helps to stabilize the mountain rock. Over the past year, around a thousand rockfalls have been reported, says Krautblatter. Some popular hiking routes have already been closed and a dozen or so Alpine huts are subsiding. It could also be a problem for cable cars, because they are anchored in the rocks on the mountainside.
Image: DW/J. Collins
A family tradition
Scientists aren't the only ones who've witnessed the changes. Toni Zwinger is 33 years old and works at the inn run by his family near the summit. He grew up on the mountain and as a child the glaciers were his playground. He says the glacier is much smaller, the winters are warmer and he hears the rocks shifting outside in the evening when the tourists have gone and the mountain is quiet.
Image: DW/J. Collins
Münchner Haus
The Münchner Haus opened in 1897 and the Zwinger family has been running it since 1925 — back when it could only be reached by climbers. It's a traditional Alpine hut in which people can stay overnight. Those people can now easily ascend the mountain by train and cable car. That's increased the number of visitors to the peak exponentially.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
Uncertain future
Even if, as set out in the Paris Agreement, the world manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, that would represent warming of around 4 degrees in the Alps. That means less snow, more rain, changing vegetation and no glaciers. It could also mean that visitors will no longer be able to enjoy a beer or hot chocolate at the century-old Münchner Haus.
